Leanne Messer brings 24 years of experience in education to Hyde Park Schools. A 1985 graduate of Texas Wesleyan College, Ms. Messer received her Bachelor of Science degree in biology and her teaching certification. After serving as a public school teacher in Texas and New Mexico she earned a Master of Arts in Educational Administration from the University of New Mexico. She was named the first female Athletic Director in the state of New Mexico and subsequently served as an Elementary School principal. After the birth of her oldest son, she supervised degree candidates in the Administrative Education department of the University of New Mexico and acted as the consulting Director for her church’s pre-school. She and her husband Steve also served on the Board of Adoptions Plus.
After completing a Juris Doctor from Georgia State University College of Law she practiced law in the areas of child advocacy and general litigation serving as the attorney of record for the Drug Court program in the juvenile court of Douglas County, a program designed for the purpose of family reunification. She also contributed to the National Zero to Three Initiative for early childhood intervention. During that time she was also an active participant in the Georgia Innocence Project, an independent nonprofit organization that works to correct and prevent wrongful convictions in Georgia.
Prior to coming to Hyde Park in 2014, she worked as an administrator at Landmark Christian School in Fairburn, Georgia, where she led the school to record enrollment and secured the largest foundational grant in the school’s 20-year history.
Currently, Ms. Messer serves as the President of the Texas Private Schools Association continuing as a member of the Board since 2015.
Additionally, she serves on the Board of Joshua Expeditions, a non-profit Christian organization founded for the purpose of assisting schools and churches in bringing the world to young people and bringing the Gospel to the world through mission travel.
Since 2017 she has served on the Board of Directors for All God’s Children International, an organization dedicated to serving the 8 million children institutionalized worldwide and working with governments to provide standards of care and training of caretakers for those orphaned and abandoned.
She was recently named to chair the board of Take Heart Ministry, an organization dedicated to inspiring students to live a God-Worthy life through dynamic discipleship and Christ-centered counseling through a program of proclaiming the Gospel in public schools, teaching discipleship in Christian/Home schools and providing mentoring and individual counseling in the state of Georgia.
In her current role as Hyde Park’s Head of School she is actively involved the Texas Association of Baptist Schools as well as the National Association of Christian Schools (formerly the Southern Baptist Association of Christian Schools).
Ms. Messer, her husband Steve, and their two sons are members of Hyde Park Baptist Church where Steve leads the Faith Life Sunday School class.